Schizoid
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schizoid_personality_disorder People with schizoid personality disorder are often aloof, cold, and indifferent, which causes interpersonal difficulty. Affected individuals may simultaneously demonstrate a rich, elaborate and exclusively internal fantasy world. SPD is not to be confused with schizophrenia, schizotypal personality disorder or antisocial personality disorder. There are however links and evidence of shared genetic risk between SPD and other cluster Apersonality disorders and schizophrenia, and SPD is thought to be part of the "schizophrenic spectrum of disorders". They may remain passive in the face of unfavorable situations. Their communication with other people may be indifferent and terse at times. Because of their lack of meaningful communication with other people, those who are diagnosed with SPD are not able to develop accurate impressions of how well they get along with others. (RD Laing) When the individual's personal space is violated, they feel suffocated and feel the need to free themselves and be independent. People who have SPD tend to be happiest when they are in a relationship in which the partner places few emotional or intimate demands on them. It is not people as such that they want to avoid, but emotions both negative and positive, emotional intimacy, and self disclosure. Sexuality Sex often causes individuals with SPD to feel that their personal space is being violated, and they commonly feel that masturbation or sexual abstinence is preferable to the emotional closeness they must tolerate when having sex. Jeffrey Seinfeld, professor of social work at New York University, has published a volume on SPD that details examples of "schizoid hunger" which may manifest as sexual promiscuity. Narcissism Guntrip defines narcissism as "a characteristic that arises out of the predominantly interior life the schizoid lives. His love objects are all inside him and moreover he is greatly identified with them so that his libidinal attachments appear to be in himself. The question, however, is whether the intense inner life of the schizoid is due to a desire for hungry incorporation of external objects or due to withdrawal from the outer to a presumed safer inner world." The need for attachment as a primary motivational force is as strong in the schizoid person as in any other human being. Because the schizoid's love objects are internal, they find safety without connecting and attaching to objects in the real world. Rather than following the narrow proposition that schizoid individuals are either sexual or asexual, Akhtar suggests that these forces may both be present in an individual despite their rather contradictory aims. A clinically accurate picture of schizoid sexuality must therefore include the overt signs: "asexual, sometimes celibate; free of romantic interests; averse to sexual gossip and innuendo," as well as possible covert manifestations of "secret voyeuristic and pornographic interests; vulnerable to erotomania; tendency towards compulsive masturbation and perversions," although none of these necessarily apply to all people with SPD. Causes Other researchers had hypothesized that unloving, neglectful, or excessively perfectionist parenting could play a role. Diagnosis # Emotional coldness, detachment or reduced affect. # Limited capacity to express either positive or negative emotions towards others. # Consistent preference for solitary activities. # Very few, if any, close friends or relationships, and a lack of desire for such. # Indifference to either praise or criticism. # Little interest in having sexual experiences with another person (taking age into account). # Taking pleasure in few, if any, activities. # Indifference to social norms and conventions. # Preoccupation with fantasy and introspection. Ticks: 3, 8, 9, Crosses: 6 (remainder undecided). I would pass the ICD-10 for this on this basis, even though I can't stand diagnostic psychiatry. Alternatively, "the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schizoid_personality_disorder#Guntrip_criteria following nine characteristics] of the schizoid personality as described by Harry Guntrip: introversion, withdrawnness, narcissism, self-sufficiency, a sense of superiority, loss of affect, loneliness, depersonalization, and regression." 1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1 Full score! Yayy!... oh wait.. :/ Regression in particular is new to me and interesting. The idea of avoidance of responsibility as a psychological regression to infantile stages of life is implied in many cliches but is useful to know as a concept.. Category:Mental Health Category:Schizophrenia Category:Schizophrenic Spectrum